It was Siddharth Kaul on whom Warner showed his faith once again, it almost paid off as Rashid Khan dropped the first ball at midwicket boundary and got a boundary. It seemed like he dropped the catch. MS Dhoni held his nerves and intended on picking up singles and couples. It came all down to 2 runs from 1 ball and ended the match with a last-ball boundary, like he always does, slapping the critics that “The Finisher’ is not yet finished. RPS won the match by 6 wickets, registering their third win.
Despite Moises Henriques’ performance, it was MS Dhoni who stole the show as he carried on Rising Pune Supergiant’s chase. Even Bhuvnehswar Kumar could not stop him, the death over specialist could not stop him in the 19th over as he got 2 fours and 1 six, 19 overs came off his over, a feat no team has achieved in this season.
While chasing a target of 177, RPS got off to a bad start as they lost the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane who got out in the fourth over. Rahul Tripathi batted really well as he scored 59 from 41 deliveries and stitching a partnership of 72 runs for the second wicket. Rashid Khan got the better of both the batsmen, one through a run out and another with ball bringing them back into the game.
MS Dhoni got off to a good start as he struck a few boundaries early in his innings. Ben Stokes joined him in the middle. but Bhuvneshwar got the better of him. Manoj Tiwary and Dhoni carried on the Pune chase. They made a good comeback in the last overs. At one point they needed 47 off 3 overs. Dhoni-Tiwary made full use of Mohammed Siraj’s over scoring 17 off it.
Earlier SRH side posted a par score at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium (MCA), Pune. Warner and Shikhar Dhawan got off to a cautious start which laid the foundation of a big score. Warner-Dhawan shared a partnership of 55 runs for the first wicket. They scored 176 for 3 in 20 overs. Warner and Kane Williamson tried to stitch a partnership for the second wicket but both of them departed after getting a good start. Warner fell 7 runs short of another half-century.
Moises Henriques performed well as he kept the scorecard moving in the middle overs and then accelerated in the final overs. He scored his third half-century scoring 55 form 28 balls. Deepak Hooda too joined him, in the end, getting them to a good score which could be defended at Pune.
